In the Media

Why is snow turning pink?

"There's a group of algae that have adapted to live in the snow habitat," said Robin Kodner, the lead scientist for the Living Snow Project at Western Washington University. "But they only start to grow in the springtime, when there's a lot of water saturating the snowpack."

Kodner said there are microbes living in snow all the time, but the algae causing the pink coloration on snow throughout the alpine regions of the state are unique. One hypothesis is that algae spores sit on soil surfaces, rocks, or ice, and in the winter months transform into swimming cells that can then settle on the surface of snow.

The good news for humans is that a pink snow bloom is not toxic, unlike green algae blooms on larger bodies of water downstream.

"They're actually pretty closely related to the types of algae that we sometimes put in smoothies," Kodner said.

WWU's Kristina Walowski discusses her recent research on Alaska's Augustine volcano. Click the link at right to listen.

These are tough times for humanities professors. Flip through The Chronicle and the disillusionment jumps off the page. Post-pandemic students are disengaged. Colleges are cutting humanities programs. Academic libraries, whose stacks used to inspire awe and humility, are reducing the size of their collections. Students and policy makers are clamoring for practical, job-oriented majors, and business is already the most popular undergraduate major. Classrooms themselves may prove an unnecessary luxury — it can be faster to get a degree online.

-- Column by WWU's Johann Neem; click the link at right to read the full article.

Researchers are looking to the past of Alaska’s Augustine volcano to find answers about its future. An ongoing research collaboration between the Alaska Volcano Observatory and scientists at Western Washington University seeks to broaden existing knowledge about the volcano to understand the true threat that it poses to Alaskans living in the Cook Inlet region. 

The research is spearheaded by Kristina Walowski, an assistant geology professor at Western Washington University. In 2020, she and her colleagues received a grant from the National Science Foundation to study Augustine, located at the southwest end of the Cook Inlet, 170 miles from Anchorage and visible from nearby Homer. They conducted much of their research last summer and are in the process of compiling it.

Young people have always been at the forefront of change, and society needs to prioritize nurturing them to become future environmental and sustainability innovators — across all fields. Doing this will require more than building their scientific and technological skills. We need to tend to climate change anxiety among young people, invest in K-12 climate education, and implement curricula anchored in environmental and sustainability literacy at all levels, which is crucial to shifting the behavioral changes that will be necessary to reduce carbon emissions. But to capitalize on our current window, educational institutions also must work intentionally to build a social infrastructure of belonging that enables individual confidence and collective agency in young people.

- Column written by WWU College of the Environment Dean Teena Gabrielson

Scientists are collecting samples from the ocean floor off the coast of Greece in hopes of predicting future volcanic activity. Among the team will be volcanologist Susan DeBari, a geology professor at Western Washington University.

“I feel really lucky to be here,” DeBari said in a Zoom interview.

With the Washington legislative session wrapping to a close, new legislation will allow local higher education institutions to utilize new recruitment and planning tools.

One measure gives higher ed outlets access to more high school student information. Another moves forward by six months a timeframe to set tuition rates — a budgeting benefit for students and institutions alike. Additionally, several bills focused on student welfare will pass.

"Overall, it's been a very good session, the House and Senate have each supported some of our top priorities, and we've been successful in shepherding some important legislation across the finish line in partnership with others," said Nora Selander, Western Washington University's director of government relations, at the April 14 Board of Trustees meeting.

It is essential that we support efforts by NASA and others to detect NEOs, characterize them and prepare for a rapid response if we need to deflect one. We in the Pacific Northwest are no more susceptible to an asteroid impact than anyone else — but we may be better suited to understand the gravity of the threat, since we’re used to hearing about the “Big One.” We can also deeply appreciate that, unlike earthquakes, this natural disaster is preventable. If humanity invests now, then — when the time comes — we’ll be able to do much more than just duck, cover and hold.

Melissa Rice is a professor of planetary science at Western Washington University, and a member of NASA’s Curiosity rover and Perseverance rover science teams.

US startup Upwell Cosmetics has entered into an agreement with Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) of Massachusetts and Western Washington University (WWU) to make and market a marine microalgae-derived wax for personal care products.

“Businesses use bank accounts to hold their money to pay for things just like we do as individuals,” said Zoë Plakias, an agricultural economist and professor at Western Washington University and Ohio State University who has done research on cannabis industry banking. “It turns out that many cannabis businesses have a very hard time just getting a bank account.”